A participant in the Microtransat Challenge, the Champlain Explorer is an unmanned "drone" boat with a mission to be the first to successfully cross the Atlantic ocean. The Microstransat Challege is a friendly speed competition for autonomous transatlantic boats. As of 2017, there have been 27 failed attempts to complete the challenge. Our entry, the Champlain Explorer, aims to be the first successful to cross.

Be a part of this exciting journey: follow the Champlain Explorer's build and development below! ​

Champlain Explorer uses 74 hand picked 18650 Li-Ion batteries. These batteries were scavenged from old toy hoverboard battery packs (remember when hoverboards were bursting on fire? Yeah..those batteries -- minus the bad stuff). Each individual cell has been capacity checked and matched to insure equal performance throughout the overall pack. The blue circuit board below is the charge controller. This will transfer power from the 2 X 100 watt solar panels into the battery pack and maintain equal voltage levels between each cell.